Graffiti and Latrinalia Throughout Plymouth, Wisconsin
Sites Visited: Riverview Middle School: Riverview Middle School was recently remodeled, everything was painted over and refurbished. The majority of graffiti that was in the school was in the bathrooms. Again, since the school was just remodeled there was not much graffiti available. What was there was that someone hated someone else, someone was with someone else or swear words like "fuck". The latrinalia definitley showed the immature age group of the graffiti-ers.
Plymouth High School: Plymouth High School, where three of the four members of our group went to school, was filled with swear words, someone hating someone else, someone liking someone else, and random quirky messages. When talking to a custodian we found that the most common of all the graffiti and latrinalia was a swear word of some kind like "fuck" or "bitch". The next most common latrinalia was that they hated one of the authority figures at the school. For example, "I hate Mrs. Harny." The picture seen at the right was taken at the High School from the boys/girls bathrooms along with the lockers. Also at the school there were two murals done by kids from passed years, which is an example of a professional mural where they were commissioned to paint the wall by the school officals.
The Alleyways of Downtown: While we searched Plymouth in the down town area we could find very few signs of graffiti in the alleyways. The only one that we could uncover was "SYRS." This sign was also found at the train station, under bridges and at the skate park. This suggests that there might be a gang in Plymouth, or it's a single tagger marking his territory.
Stayer Park: The Stayer-Meyer Park is mostly for children. The only people that go to the park are little kids, some younger teens that are in middle school, and "stoners" that don't have anywhere else to hang out. When we started to take pictures of the graffiti we talked to some of the skaters there. They were very helpful and explained what some of the graffiti meant because they were the one's that had drawn them. When we went back they had added to them by signing their names and dating them. Because the people that go there are either in the puberty stage or just entering it the graffiti is centered around sex.
The Depot (trains): At the train station we discovered a lot of graffiti, most of it was regional graffiti and from various gangs from other states.
Under Bridges: The under side of bridges are like the alleyways, a popular place for graffiti, but it was recently painted over. The main groups that go to these bridges are "stoners" so they can hang out and get high or to create their own graffiti, but it is a place where they can go and not be seen easily.
Skate Park: In the larger Plymouth city park there is a skate park with ramps and a rail for grinding. It is frequented by middle school boys who classify themselves as "Sk8ers". The graffiti that we saw there was a carryover from what we would have seen in the middle school if it wasn't freshly painted and restored. There were four big graffiti-ers there, Nic, Sydney, Chris and Luke, and they had a bit of a turf war going on between them. There was graffiti by Nic calling Sydney gay, and vice versa. Most of it was sexual in nature, talking about sex and calling each other gay. I think this is because the group that most frequents the skate park are young boys who are just starting puberty, writing to their friends trying to work things out together in a public forum. There was also some graffiti that Sydney had done for his girlfriend Micheal (but, then again both Sydney and Micheal are names that can be both male and female, so perhaps Sydney is the girl and Micheal is the guy) commemorating their one month anniversary.
Classifications:
Territoriality- Graffiti Kings- This type of graffiti is in highly visible places and other's always try to oneup eachother by going to bigger and more visible places. For example, the pictures of the train station. Those trains go all over the country and people want their artwork to be seen and that is a way to been seen. Also, at the train station there was graffiti near the top of a building and at first we were uncertain of how it got there. It was a highly visible "SYRS" and then we realized the person who drew it stood on top of the train to reach the area. This shows that the person who drew "SYRS" wants it to be known that they were there. Gang Graffiti-This graffiti is a territorial marker that can hold for decades and can be seen in places where that gang congregates most often. We only saw one sign of gang graffiti at the skate park and the kids that skate there told us that whoever did it was a wanna-be gangster. Statement Graffiti- This type of graffiti is used when a person is trying to reach out and tell people to do something. For example, at the train station we found graffiti that said, "Save Darfur."
Art Graffiti- This type of graffiti is just the average drawings and pictures of people expressing themselves and their creativity. We found this graffiti mostly at the skate park and under the bridges where they would draw faces and stick figures.
Analysis: Graffiti and Latrinalia is generally disliked by the public. This means that the places with a lot of graffiti/latrinalia will possibly lose business due to the stereotypes linked to this kind of "art work." Professionally done graffiti such as murals, however, are more often appreciated and liked by the public. Graffiti/Latrinalia are almost always present in any kind of school unless it was recently redone. The graffiti does not affect the students though, because they are the ones that have created it. Conclusion: The general conclusion that can be gained from the Graffiti in Plymouth, Wisconsin is that it is generally centered around sex. The theme of sex is seen in each of the graffiti sights and suggest that the graffiti-ers are preteens and teenagers. There was a suprisingly small amount of graffiti in the Plymouth area. We saw that a lot of areas were recently painted over in residental, and the more active areas of town to cover the previous graffiti.
Works Cited
Photographs taken by Ayla Erdmann. May 5 and 12, 2009.
Gerlach, Andrea. City in Space and Time Notes, Fall Semester 2008.
Photographs taken by Ashley Nennig. May 5, 2009.
Graffiti and Latrinalia Throughout Plymouth, Wisconsin
Sites Visited:Riverview Middle School: Riverview Middle School was recently remodeled, everything was painted over and refurbished. The majority of graffiti that was in the school was in the bathrooms. Again, since the school was just remodeled there was not much graffiti available. What was there was that someone hated someone else, someone was with someone else or swear words like "fuck". The latrinalia definitley showed the immature age group of the graffiti-ers.
Plymouth High School: Plymouth High School, where three of the four members of our group went to school, was filled with swear words, someone hating someone else, someone liking someone else, and random quirky messages. When talking to a custodian we found that the most common of all the graffiti and latrinalia was a swear word of some kind like "fuck" or "bitch". The next most common latrinalia was that they hated one of the authority figures at the school. For example, "I hate Mrs. Harny." The picture seen at the right was taken at the High School from the boys/girls bathrooms along with the lockers. Also at the school there were two murals done by kids from passed years, which is an example of a professional mural where they were commissioned to paint the wall by the school officals.
The Alleyways of Downtown: While we searched Plymouth in the down town area we could find very few signs of graffiti in the alleyways. The only one that we could uncover was "SYRS." This sign was also found at the train station, under bridges and at the skate park. This suggests that there might be a gang in Plymouth, or it's a single tagger marking his territory.
The Depot (trains): At the train station we discovered a lot of graffiti, most of it was regional graffiti and from various gangs from other states.
Under Bridges: The under side of bridges are like the alleyways, a popular place for graffiti, but it was recently painted over. The main groups that go to these bridges are "stoners" so they can hang out and get high or to create their own graffiti, but it is a place where they can go and not be seen easily.
Skate Park: In the larger Plymouth city park there is a skate park with ramps and a rail for grinding. It is frequented by middle school boys who classify themselves as "Sk8ers". The graffiti that we saw there was a carryover from what we would have seen in the middle school if it wasn't freshly painted and restored. There were four big graffiti-ers there, Nic, Sydney, Chris and Luke, and they had a bit of a turf war going on between them. There was graffiti by Nic calling Sydney gay, and vice versa. Most of it was sexual in nature, talking about sex and calling each other gay. I think this is because the group that most frequents the skate park are young boys who are just starting puberty, writing to their friends trying to work things out together in a public forum. There was also some graffiti that Sydney had done for his girlfriend Micheal (but, then again both Sydney and Micheal are names that can be both male and female, so perhaps Sydney is the girl and Micheal is the guy) commemorating their one month anniversary.
Classifications:
Territoriality-Graffiti Kings- This type of graffiti is in highly visible places and other's always try to oneup eachother by going to bigger and more visible places. For example, the pictures of the train station. Those trains go all over the country and people want their artwork to be seen and that is a way to been seen. Also, at the train station there was graffiti near the top of a building and at first we were uncertain of how it got there. It was a highly visible "SYRS" and then we realized the person who drew it stood on top of the train to reach the area. This shows that the person who drew "SYRS" wants it to be known that they were there.
Gang Graffiti-This graffiti is a territorial marker that can hold for decades and can be seen in places where that gang congregates most often. We only saw one sign of gang graffiti at the skate park and the kids that skate there told us that whoever did it was a wanna-be gangster.
Statement Graffiti- This type of graffiti is used when a person is trying to reach out and tell people to do something. For example, at the train station we found graffiti that said, "Save Darfur."
Art Graffiti- This type of graffiti is just the average drawings and pictures of people expressing themselves and their creativity. We found this graffiti mostly at the skate park and under the bridges where they would draw faces and stick figures.
for additional pictures
Conclusion/Analysis:
Analysis: Graffiti and Latrinalia is generally disliked by the public. This means that the places with a lot of graffiti/latrinalia will possibly lose business due to the stereotypes linked to this kind of "art work." Professionally done graffiti such as murals, however, are more often appreciated and liked by the public. Graffiti/Latrinalia are almost always present in any kind of school unless it was recently redone. The graffiti does not affect the students though, because they are the ones that have created it.Conclusion: The general conclusion that can be gained from the Graffiti in Plymouth, Wisconsin is that it is generally centered around sex. The theme of sex is seen in each of the graffiti sights and suggest that the graffiti-ers are preteens and teenagers. There was a suprisingly small amount of graffiti in the Plymouth area. We saw that a lot of areas were recently painted over in residental, and the more active areas of town to cover the previous graffiti.
Works Cited
Photographs taken by Ayla Erdmann. May 5 and 12, 2009.
Gerlach, Andrea. City in Space and Time Notes, Fall Semester 2008.
Photographs taken by Ashley Nennig. May 5, 2009.